At that time family member Tej Sahota said they had not given up hope of finding Mr Srawn.

"We maintain some evidence has to turn up. He just can't disappear into thin air. That's physically impossible," he said.

"There has to be some evidence of him on that mountain. Our conviction tells us that he's going to be alive, but we're looking for some sort of evidence ... until we get that evidence, we're not going to quit on this."

Mr Srawn's mobile service provider found the last signal from his phone was sent from the west face of Mount Townsend.